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#1
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Advice on Central Air Conditioner
I have a one-story 1,900 sq. ft. house in North Texas. I'm thinking of
replacing my 20-year-old, 3-ton, SEER= 9 Lennox air conditioner. I've been told to replace it with a 4-ton Bryant unit. Any comments or recommendations? Thanks. |
#2
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Advice on Central Air Conditioner
Michael White wrote: I have a one-story 1,900 sq. ft. house in North Texas. I'm thinking of replacing my 20-year-old, 3-ton, SEER= 9 Lennox air conditioner. I've been told to replace it with a 4-ton Bryant unit. Any comments or recommendations? Thanks. By whom? A Bryant salesperson?? Shop around. Learn about SEER, brands, reliability, what you need for your house, factors based on where you live, etc. How expensive is your electricty? Where do you set your thermostat? Is your house well insulated or can you improve that for less money? Or should you do both? |
#3
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Advice on Central Air Conditioner
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#4
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Advice on Central Air Conditioner
Mike;
I just went through what you are going through in April. My home is in Va. I replaced my unit with an 18seer york heatpump. The most important thing is to get a Manual J AND a Manual D done. The Manual J is going to check for heat /cooling loss through your windows and walls. The Manual D will check your current ducts out. Normally, a new higher seer 3 ton unit will put out better more efficient cooling than a 20 year old unit. It is very IMPORTANT not to oversize your unit. If you oversize your unit, it will run half as much and it will cool the house but do nothing for the humidity. All the cycling on and off is harder on the motors and compressors. Your indoor air quality will also suffer. The newer models now have variable spped fans and 2 speed compressors. The units will run continously but at a lower speed. This will provide for better humidity control, and better indoor air quality because the air is constantly being filtered. As a result, it is much better for indoor air poluttants and allergies. With some of the higher seer units, you need larger ducts to handle the airflow. A manual D will insure your current ducts are ok. For my 18 Seer York unit, I paid 11000 installed with a 10 year waranty on everything. The new units are not cheap. Part of it is Katrina, and the other part is that you are going to save so much on utilities, that they are not gonna give the units away. Here is a pretty good site that can tell you how much you can expect to save with a new unit. http://www.hvacopcost.com/ Also reccommend that you post at www.hvac-talk.com in the residential section. Their are a lot of techs over there that can guide you towards making a good decision. Take Care Pat |
#5
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Advice on Central Air Conditioner
Michael White wrote:
I have a one-story 1,900 sq. ft. house in North Texas. I'm thinking of replacing my 20-year-old, 3-ton, SEER= 9 Lennox air conditioner. I've been told to replace it with a 4-ton Bryant unit. Any comments or recommendations? Thanks. Get at least three estimates; more - 4 0r 5 - is better. You'd be surprised at the variation of recommendations in terms of price, size, and system configuration. We just got a 30 year old air conditioner/furnace replaced (GE which apparently went out of the business in the 80s). I called five places - based on personal recommendations, whether or not I knew they did the Manual J calculations, and a local consumer guide. One company did not show up. Of the remaining four, two did thorough Manual J calculations (they measured, went away and a few days came back with figures to show us along with a recommendation on size), and other two did quick calculations of some sort (went to their truck and came back 15 minutes later). First, the A/C size recommendations ranged from 2 ton to 3 ton. Looking at the Manual J figures, we knew we sat just at 2 tons (24,000 lb?). One company said to go higher at 2 1/2 tons and one recommended to go 2 ton. One quick calculation company recommended 3 ton to give us "space" (they were immediately eliminated). The second quick calculations guy came up with 2 1/2 tons - he didn't really justify his recommendations except by saying he had about 20 years of experience (and to be honest, he was the only one who was NOT just a salesman - he also did the installation and service of these units). Then, there was the price. There was a good $2000 range in the pricing. It was difficult to compare apples to apples because the warranties differed as well as the scope of work and maintenance contracts (if any) as well as any accessories and extras. Jeanne |
#6
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Advice on Central Air Conditioner
Thanks much for all the good advice.
"Jeanne" wrote in message . .. Michael White wrote: I have a one-story 1,900 sq. ft. house in North Texas. I'm thinking of replacing my 20-year-old, 3-ton, SEER= 9 Lennox air conditioner. I've been told to replace it with a 4-ton Bryant unit. Any comments or recommendations? Thanks. Get at least three estimates; more - 4 0r 5 - is better. You'd be surprised at the variation of recommendations in terms of price, size, and system configuration. We just got a 30 year old air conditioner/furnace replaced (GE which apparently went out of the business in the 80s). I called five places - based on personal recommendations, whether or not I knew they did the Manual J calculations, and a local consumer guide. One company did not show up. Of the remaining four, two did thorough Manual J calculations (they measured, went away and a few days came back with figures to show us along with a recommendation on size), and other two did quick calculations of some sort (went to their truck and came back 15 minutes later). First, the A/C size recommendations ranged from 2 ton to 3 ton. Looking at the Manual J figures, we knew we sat just at 2 tons (24,000 lb?). One company said to go higher at 2 1/2 tons and one recommended to go 2 ton. One quick calculation company recommended 3 ton to give us "space" (they were immediately eliminated). The second quick calculations guy came up with 2 1/2 tons - he didn't really justify his recommendations except by saying he had about 20 years of experience (and to be honest, he was the only one who was NOT just a salesman - he also did the installation and service of these units). Then, there was the price. There was a good $2000 range in the pricing. It was difficult to compare apples to apples because the warranties differed as well as the scope of work and maintenance contracts (if any) as well as any accessories and extras. Jeanne |
#7
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Advice on Central Air Conditioner
Why does anyone need a manual J calculation done when they already have
actual data and experience from their existing unit? Certainly you need to do it for new construction, but if you have an existing 3 ton unit, the experience with how that has performed IMO is going to be a lot more accurate than a theoretical calculation. If you know how the existing system has performed, length of duty cycle on hot days, and it's specs, then you already have the best guide to what size unit to replace it with. |
#8
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Advice on Central Air Conditioner
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#9
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Advice on Central Air Conditioner
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